If we establish the beginning of the “Golden Era” of Astros’ baseball as 2015, when they returned to the postseason for the first time since the 2005 World Series, there is no player from this last decade whose legacy is more complicated than Lance McCullers.
When McCullers was at his best, few in baseball were better, as his All Star selection in 2017 and his 7th place finish for the American League Cy Young in 2021 demonstrate. When Lance was at his worst, it unfortunately was after a slew of surgeries and a decade’s worth of injuries, in 2025 and 2026. McCullers life off the field makes it even more complicated, because few Houston athletes have been more giving and thoughtful.
Well, the McCullers Era in Houston ended on Wednesday, 12 MLB seasons in, as the Astros traded McCullers to the Brewers, along with pitcher Colton Gordon and cash, for minor league outfielder Jadyn Fielder, who happens to be the grandson of Cecil Fielder. After picking myself up off the floor upon learning Cecil Fielder is a grandfather — I FEEL OLD! — here were my first four thoughts that popped into my head regarding the McCullers trade:
The list of Golden Era full timers has dwindled to two players (sort of)
We know who comprised the core group of the original foundation of this era of Astros baseball — Jose Altuve, Carlos Correa, George Springer, Dallas Kuechel, and McCullers in 2015. Alex Bregman came along a season later. Now, here we are, a dozen or so seasons later, and with McCullers now gone, the only REAL original still left is Altuve, considering Correa went on what now feels like a “study abroad” program in Minnesota for a few seasons. Because of his injuries, people sometimes forget that McCullers is a Golden Era original. Well, he was, and they probably don’t make the 2017 World Series without him.
We will always have Game 7 of the ALCS
That brings us to the 2017 ALCS, where the Astros triumphed in a seven game dogfight with the New York Yankees. Newly acquired (at the time) Justin Verlander was the MVP of that series, and was obviously outstanding, but the most memorable pitching performance of that series was McCullers’ finishing out the final four innings of Game 7, at one point throwing 24 straight curveballs to Yankee hitters late in the game. McCullers was in his early 20s at the time, but you could tell he had stones the size of church bells, and he was a crucial ingredient to that entire postseason run, putting up a 2.63 ERA in just over 20 innings.
The 2022 postseason was the best of times and the worst of times
The injuries for McCullers began the following season, when he finished the 2018 campaign with a torn UCL, necessitating Tommy John surgery, which forced him to miss all of 2019. McCullers came back healthy in 2020 and 2021, until he was forced out of the 2021 playoffs with an injury. He returned in August of 2022, and in that World Series run, McCullers had two of the more memorable performances, one good and one bad. First, the good, in which McCullers was the starter and threw six shutout innings in the 18-inning, 1-0 win over the Mariners in the 2022 ALDS close out game. Then, the bad, in which McCullers gave up five home runs in a Game 3 loss in the World Series.
Ultimately, what will McCullers be most remembered for?
Speaking of the 2022 World Series, since that series, McCullers has only thrown 142.1 innings. That number is over a nearly four-season period. In other words, in essentially four seasons, McCullers hasn’t even pitched the requisite number of innings to qualify for the ERA title in ONE season. Ultimately, and sadly, I think the injuries will be what McCullers is most remembered for, especially because the Astros got practically nothing from him over the course of the five-year, $85 million extension he signed in 2021. Hopefully, as time goes by, and as the 2017 postseason is crystallized even more as a series of golden moments, people will remember the 24 straight curveballs and all of the great things McCullers did off the field in his time in Houston.
